Nowy Targ 2015-08-20
Aviation Picnic – Nowy Targ 2015.
7th Aviation Picnic in Nowy Targ.
August 15-16, 2015. Saturday – Sunday.
The Nowy Targ Aviation Picnic has already entered the calendar of aviation events in Poland for good. The event is getting bigger every year. This year’s picnic was held for the seventh time on August 15-16, 2015 (Saturday-Sunday). The host was Aeroklub Nowotarski.
On Saturday the weather was good. It was warm, but not hot. Only a little rain passed, which did not frustrate the program of the show. On Sunday it was a bit worse, which, however, did not prevent the event from taking place and pleased thousands of people. In a word, the weather spared viewers and organizers. According to the organizers, there were 24,000 spectators on Saturday and 18,000 on Sunday.
As usual, the organizers provided a large car park for passenger cars at the airport itself. A fee of PLN 10 for the entire day of parking. Those who wanted to save those 10 zlotys could park outside the airport in a wild parking lot located a bit further. This year (2015), access to the airport was difficult due to several road repairs, so the organizers threw the slogan – "Walk to the Picnic."
For spoters, please note; The departure field for the audience location is to the south, so most of the photos are taken against the sun, which is a downside.
The organizers provided many attractions and there was something going on in the sky all the time. Pilots from as many as five European countries were invited, which was a kind of record.
We will start with the points that interested us the most, and these were the Mi-24 combat helicopters, the training and training TS-11 Iskra and the An-2 nb 7474 "Wiedenczyk".
Mil Mi-24 combat helicopters.
A few days before the event, three Mi-24 combat helicopters of the Polish Air Force from the 56th Air Base in Inowrocław landed at the airport in Nowy Targ. These were Mi-24 nb 732, 737, 741 machines. The presence of helicopters at Nowy Targ Airport was not unusual. For several decades, the crews of Polish combat helicopters have been training flights in mountainous terrain using the Nowy Targ airport as a training ground. Last year (2014), the helicopters were here in May, and their night flights caused complaints from some residents. This year (2015) helicopters were here at the turn of June and July. Now they came almost especially for the party. For the public, the Mi-24 presented themselves twice a day, in a nearly 20-minute program. There were always two helicopters. The pilots presented slow and fast flights, backward flight, hover in the air, hide and extend the landing gear of the machine, simulate a combat attack from a small hill. All with the characteristic, loud sound of the drive unit, which evokes emotions in the viewer. Mi-24 helicopters presented a similar demonstration at the 2013 Aviation Picnic in Nowy Targ.
TS-11 Iskra nb 1214.
The second attraction was a dynamic show of the TS-11 Iskra training aircraft. For the first time in Nowy Targ we could see a turbojet engine. It was the TS-11 Iskra nb 1214 aircraft, registration SP-YBC. As the runway at Nowy Trag Airport is unpaved, the plane arrived at the show taking off from Balice Airport. The plane belongs to the Biało-Czerwony Skrzydła Foundation. However, it is worth presenting the entire history of this copy here.
The TS-11 Iskra aircraft is a bis D version. It left the factory hall of PZL Mielec on October 30, 1974 and received the serial number 3H 12-14, which means that it belonged to the 12 production series, which included 33 machines. It was 298 built Iskra. According to other sources, the plane was not built until 1976, but this information is not confirmed in other documents. On November 12, 1974, the plane was delivered to the first user – the 38th Aviation School Regiment (JW 5401, probably Modlin Airport at that time). On May 8, 1975, the plane was incorporated into the state of the Air Force Technical School in Zamość (Mokre Airport). On February 4, 1976, the plane returned to the 38th Aviation School Regiment, where it remained until October 16, 1986, that is over 10 years. In the period from October 9, 1986 to January 21, 1988, the plane underwent the first general overhaul at WZL-2 in Bydgoszcz. On October 20, 1986, the plane was entered into the status of the 58th Aviation School Regiment in Dęblin (JW 5256), where it was used until November 9, 1989, although in the meantime the plane was also used by the 60th Aviation School Regiment in Radom. On November 17, 1989, the plane found its way to the 3rd Pomeranian Aviation Training and Combat Regiment in Bydgoszcz (Military Unit 3117). Due to the slow liquidation of the Regiment, which was the only one in Poland to use Su-7 strike planes. The TS-11 Iskra nb 1214 plane was registered from the regiment on January 21, 1991, but on July 26, 1991, it returned to Dęblin to the 58th LPSzk. In the period from January 14, 1999 to December 16, 1999, the plane underwent a second general overhaul at WZL-3 in Dęblin. The 58th LPSzk was disbanded in Dęblin, and the 1st Aviation Training Center was established in its place. The plane flew here until April 14, 2004, when Lieutenant Pilot Krzysztof Kłaczyński made the last flight. On February 23, 2006, the plane was checked out of the state of the unit and handed over to the Military Property Agency. The plane was preserved and after partial disassembly it was packed into a container with the intention of selling it. This guaranteed the high quality of its storage and minimal degradation of the structure. Throughout the period of service in the Polish Military Aviation, the plane spent 2,880 hours, 39 minutes in the air, making 6,100 flights without an accident.
In October 2013, the plane was purchased by the Biało-Czerwony Skrzydła Foundation based near Warsaw, with the intention of restoring it to a flying state and then demonstrating it in the air around the world. The founders of the Biało-Czerwony Skrzydła Foundation are Piotr Maciejewski (president) and Jakub Kubicki. Airplane and glider pilots, pupils of the Warsaw Aero Club. The intention came true and on October 19, 2014 (Sunday), at Lublin-Świdnik Airport, the aircraft, which had received the SP-YBC registration, was re-flown, which means that it is a special aircraft. The test pilot was Sławomir Hetman. Thus, it is the second private Iskra in Poland that flies. It is worth adding that the Biało-Czerwony Skrzydła Foundation dreams of acquiring and bringing to a flying state one of the numerous examples of the PZL I-22 Iryda aircraft. Fingers crossed!
And it was the TS-11 Iskra nb 1214 SP-YBC registration that was demonstrated twice in a dynamic show at the Nowy Targ Picnic every day.
PZL An-2 nb 7447 „Wiedeńczyk”.
"Viennese" is an An-2 transport and landing plane, popularly known as "Antek". The An-2 nb 7447 aircraft was built in 1966 at PZL Mielec under a license from the CCCP. The plane went to the 13th Regiment of Transport Aviation at Balice Airport. On April 1, 1982, during the martial law, the 13th PLTr Balice performed landing flights for the 6th Pomeranian Airborne Division. During these flights, the crew of the An-2 aircraft reported technical problems and the need to conduct a test flight without jumpers, for which they received permission. It was the beginning of the planned escape. There was an airplane mechanic on board who was uninitiated. Well, the basic crew are airmen who have a specific task to be done, but do not know which plane they will fly. The technician, in turn, is assigned to a specific machine and looks after it. As the An-2 is a relatively large aircraft, its technician was always on board. The fugitives would have to bring all the technicians into their plan, and that was impossible. The communist media reported the exemplary attitude of a technician who decided to return to the country.
The plane landed on a meadow on the Vistula near the town of Czernichów, near Balice. Families boarded and another fellow airman who joined the escape. The plane took off without any problems and set a course for Vienna, almost close to the ground. The crew flew the plane so low that the landing gear touched the branches of the trees, and after landing, it turned out that a few twigs had stuck into the canvas cover of the wings. The plan was successful and the plane landed in Vienna, at the Schwechat airport. The flight took about two hours. The flight technician returned to Poland, and the rest asked for and received asylum. Until now, they live abroad in the USA.
The plane also returned to the country. Brought in by a special group and was soon restored to normal service. Over the next years, he transported people, goods, landed jumpers and pulled a shooting sleeve.
In 2007, it was decided to commemorate this escape and the machine received a special painting designed by Marek Radomski from the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow. Since then, the plane has become the highlight of the shows. The unusual appearance and its history interested many people for several years.
The plane, however, is already very worn out. Around 2013, at the Polish Aviation Museum, the idea of making a plane double was born and this is how a replica of the "Vienna" was created; An-2 nb 7447 plane, registration of SP-MLP, which just presents the owner – the Polish Aviation Museum. The plane is normally based at the Pobiednik Airport near Krakow. We could admire this plane in Nowy Targ, and earlier, for example, in Bielsko-Biała in 2014. During the Picnic, the plane could be seen inside and outside the static exhibition, and then it was displayed in the air. During the flight, the crew demonstrated a "fast" and very slow flight with the wing flaps fully extended.
In the photos it is easy to distinguish the original "Viennese" from the double "Viennese". The original has checkerboards of a new design (since 1993, the first square is white), the double has checkerboards from the PRL period (the first square is red) and SP-MLP registration (Poland – Polish Aviation Museum). Recently, the flying "Viennese" was disfigured by the logo of the Masonic radio.
The picnic also featured the Jak-18 flying plane, which belongs to the Polish Aviation Museum.A big attraction was also the RWD-5 R plane, i.e. a flying replica of the famous Polish machine on which, in 1933, Colonel Pilot Stanisław Skarżyński crossed the South Atlantic.
The PZL Sokół helicopter registration SN-34XP, which belongs to the Polish Police, based on a daily basis in Krakow-Czyżyny, was also at the show.
Acrobatics and team flights.
Zoltan Veres, a Hungarian-born pilot, presented himself among the aerobatic pilots. His aviation heritage is impressive; 19,000 hours of flight time, piloted 120 types of aircraft, has almost all possible aviation licenses, and has been practicing acrobatics since 1988. Mr. Zoltan is also listed in the Guinness Book, because he made 408 barrels in one run.
There was also a well-known Polish viewer pilot Uwe Zimmermann, who presented himself on his Extra 200 plane.In the sky, we could admire the oldest registered flying monument in Poland: the school Boeing Stearman, which was built in 1942.
Hawks of Romania was to be the star of the shows. However, the group did not come to Nowy Targ. There was a tragedy. One of its members went missing during a soaring flight in Romania. The search operation lasted for several days.
In the sky, we could admire, for the first time in Nowy Targ, the very popular 3AT3 Flying Formation Team flying on AT3 light aircraft.
After sunset, you could see hot air balloon rises and a show of paragliders from the Flying Dragons Regatta Team. There were also models of flying planes, gliders presented by the modeling section operating here at the Nowy Targ Aero Club.
Similarly to the picnics in Bielsko-Biała, the viewers could take a sightseeing flight with the Cessna 172S or Cessna A185F for PLN 90. The flight takes approximately 7-10 minutes. Flights were operated from 09:00 to dusk.
There were also many attractions on the ground. There were concerts, contests, sports and recreational activities on the set stage. Of course there was an amusement park with carousels, slides, electric cars. There were numerous stalls, stands, buffets. Companies presented bikes, scooters, motorbikes and cars.
Written by Karol Placha Hetman